I am looking for a decent pair of headphones for daily use - phone(iphone) and laptop. I am not pedantic about sound quality but do appreciate an overall good sound. Some noise isolation would be good, but not necessarily needed.

I scanned the forum and found these two to be decent enough in the $100ish range. Other options are also welcome.

I preferred the ATH-M50's but the only time I use headphones is in noisy environments. The ATH-M50's are actually pretty good at isolation. I also like how the ATH-M50 fold up so well, and they are very durable(Mine have been sat on and lived).

Sonics are more comfortable, but way less durable than the M50's. I've had the M50s for over a year and they are still intact, which is something I can't say for the Sonics (weak hinges keeping the earcups to the headstrap). The Sonics are also easier for portable use as the cable is not as long as the M50s and also have the added bonus of having the wire easilyeeplaceable. Soundwise, I would say the M50s are more "fun" than the Sonics with quite a bit more bass while the Sonics sound more neutral with a little emphasis on the treble overall.

Yes I owned both of them until I gave them to my little brothers. I plan on getting myself some more M50's again though.

About the cable, you can shorten it very easily with a soldering iron. If your not familiar with a soldering iron then you can check out the link in my signature or give me a PM and we could work a deal out to shorten them.

I have been using this (M50s) for almost 2 weeks now. I was a bit disappointed by the bass, its a bit low for me. But, the headphones feel pretty balanced across different music genres. The noise isolation is pretty nice, even on subways. Overall a satisfactory purchase.

Thanks for the help Syndrome and k5r2an.

Quick note: the cable is actually quite long if you only want to use it for laptop/phone. I bought the S as I felt the coiled wire would be bulky to keep in the pocket during commute.

Yes the cable is long. I reduced the length of my cable by taking the headphone apart and un-soldering it from the driver. Then I pulled more cable into the headphone until I had the length I wanted and cut it. Resoldered it to the driver and now its the original cable at my desired length.